The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress has officially introduced the bill providing for sanctions against high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan. 27 American legislators have already expressed their support for the bill initiated by Dina Titus. This is reported by the sources of the Azerbaijani political exile in Europe. It became known that the “sanction list” was also expanded. Names of three more high-ranking Azerbaijani officials were included there.
It is of fundamental importance, perhaps, that the First Deputy Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces General Kerim Veliyev was also considered subject to sanctions. He was appointed to that position after the second Karabakh war. Before that, Veliev held the position of the commander of the separate unified army of the Nakhichevan Armed Forces of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, and is considered a soldier of “Turkish temper”. According to some sources, Kerimov “personally participated” in the military operation to capture Shushi together with the commander of the special forces unit Mirzoev.
Whether it is or not is irrelevant. It is known that Veliev enjoyed Ilham Aliyev’s special sympathy throughout his military service. According to a number of experts, he is the “most likely deputy” of Defense Minister Hasanov. The Washington correspondent of the “Turan” agency has learned that high-ranking Azerbaijani military personnel “are accused of war crimes during the military operations in Karabakh last fall.”
So far, nothing is known about the procedural fate of the bill. Whether the Foreign Relations Committee will consider it, when, with what motivation, is too difficult to even guess. In this regard, Azerbaijani analyst Gasimli expressed a quite spectacular point of view. In his opinion, “a negative public opinion towards the West is being formed in Azerbaijan at the request of Russian President Putin himself.” The Azerbaijani political scientist is convinced that “after the special military operation in Karabakh, the Kremlin has Aliyev in a pinch, it is extremely difficult for him to break with Putin.”
Gasimli considers that the West “still keeps the red lines, does not take real steps against Azerbaijan”. He cites France as an example, that although it has recognized the independence of Nagorno Karabakh at the level of the National Assembly and the Senate, President Macron “refrains from meeting”. In his opinion, Washington is doing the same by “instigating a discussion of the sanctions bill” in Congress. According to the Azerbaijani analyst, the goal is to “remove Aliyev from Putin, to prevent clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.”
It can be considered that the circulation of such views is organized, directed by Aliyev’s office or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, or even by special services. Nevertheless, the speech itself deserves attention at least in the sense that it testifies to the existence of the “second layer” of political discussions in Azerbaijan. Especially since the official representative of the US State Department, seemingly contradicting Aliyev’s statement that “Yerevan and Baku do not need mediators”, reaffirmed that Secretary of State Blinken is involved in the “resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani crisis”.
Against this background, Russian commentator Tarasov’s point of view is attracting attention, that the agreement to organize the Armenian-Azerbaijani ministerial meeting in Almaty “proves that the negotiation process is moving from the West to the post-Soviet area”. Gasimlin explains the ambiguity of Aliyev’s attitude by the uncertainty of the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian war. “If Russia does not achieve its goal, Aliyev will appear in the air.” He will be treated like Putin and Lukashenko,” he concluded.
Are the “sanctions bill” introduced in the Congress and, especially, the addition of the name of a person from Aliyev’s close circle to the list, a warning? If Aliyev is forced to “deny” Putin until the second rooster crows, how will the Kremlin react?
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